July 28, 2017 (Santee) -- An abused 3-month-old terrier is now recovering at County Animal Services after being found abandoned late Wednesday night outside a Santee fast food restaurant. A witness reported seeing an orange Dodge Charger stop, pause, then pull away. The puppy ran from the spot where the Dodge had been, then hid beneath another vehicle.

July 23, 2017 (Ramona) – Complaints by neighbors of suspicious activity led to a search warrant for a property in the 500 block of F Street in Ramona early this morning. SWAT team members and deputies with the Sheriff’s crime suppression team found firearms, drugs, drug paraphernalia and suspected stolen property.

July 20, 2017 (El Cajon) – The El Cajon Police Officers Association has set up a Go fund me page (https://www.gofundme.com/ieshafund ) for Iesha Booker, a homeless mother of seven who came to the aid of Officer Sioson after he was knocked unconscious by a suspect who continued to assault him, causing serious injuries.

The 34-year-old MTS bus driver, was at the KFC in El Cajon when the assault occurred. “When everyone else at the KFC stood around shocked, Lesha quickly stepped in, using Officer Sioson’s police radio to transmit `Officer Down at the KFC!’ It was that transmission which allowed us to expedite help to Officer Sioson, quickly arrest the suspect,” says Travis Howard, president of the El Cajon Police Officers Association.

July 20, 2017 (La Mesa) – Authorities are seeking public help to locate a masked, gun-wielding suspect seen exiting Conroy’s Flower Shop on Jackson Drive in la Mesa at 10:50 a.m. Passerbys called police and reported eseing the suspect get into a Hyundai Elantra, license 7LNX477, driven by another suspect. They are considered armed and dangerous.

A second witness took a photo of the black Hyundai and its license plate. Police arrived and confirmed that a robbery had occurred. Minutes later, La Mesa Police spotted the vehicle traveling westbound on I-8 in the College area.

July 19, 2017 (San Diego) -- The County Board of Supervisors this week adopted a new alternative custody program that will help inmates with a mental illness re-enter the community.

Programming for Reentry, Support and Stability, or PROGRESS, will address the mental health of sentenced offenders in an alternative custody setting. The County Probation Department, the Public Defender Office and the Health and Human Services Agency worked with the Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s Office to develop the strategy.

July 19, 2017 (San Diego) — The San Diego County Board of Supervisors this week unanimously approved more than a million dollars to equip Sheriff's Deputies with body-worn cameras.

The Sheriff's Department will officially roll out its body-worn camera program next month at the Alpine Sheriff's Station and Ramona Sheriff's Substation. From there, deputies countywide will receive the cameras within four to five months.

July 18, 2017 (El Cajon) – A transient is under arrest for the attempted murder of an El Cajon Police officer that occurred yesterday shortly after 10 a.m. The suspect reportedly punched the officer repeatedly, continuing to assault him after he was unconscious.

Officers were dispatched to a Dollar Store, where a robbery had been reported. Employees said the suspect had gone to a JFC restaurant nearby at 724 Fletcher Parkway. KFC had also called police to report the suspect stole soda from their fountain. There, the suspect, Daniel Moses Cook, 42, violently assaulted the officer.

July 16, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) — Brandon Worley, a parolee at large wanted in connection to a stolen assault rifle, was captured today following a pursuit through El Cajon, Rancho San Diego, Alpine and Descanso.

July 13, 2017 (San Diego)-- The District Attorney's Office is looking for the owners of hundreds of items that have been impounded by law enforcement in connection to a burglary series throughout San Diego County. A treasure trove of items was found in a storage unit belonging to a serial burglary suspect.

Deputy District Attorney James Koerber explains more in this video. [TWEET THIS]

July 11, 2017 (La Mesa) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the San Diego Violent Crimes Task Force are seeking the public’s assistance to identify the individual responsible for a bank robbery in La Mesa, California earlier today.

July 10, 2017 (Santee) – Three youths who tried to buy marijuana in Santee wound up fleeing gunfire after they asked to inspect the cannabis before paying for it. In response to the question, one of the two sellers punched one of the would-be pot buyers, knocking out a tooth. The second seller pulled out a gun and fired five shots at the fleeing boys, striking his partner as well as one of the buyers, Sergeant William Amavisca with the Sheriff’s department reports.

July 10, 2017 (San Diego) – The California Highway Patrol is seeking information on a shooting that occurred following a dispute between two motorists July 8th at 2:45 p.m. on the I-5 southbound to State Route 163 northbound transition.

July 8, 2017 (Lemon Grove) – A sobriety checkpoint in Lemon Grove found no intoxicated drivers, but did lead to citations for license violations and impounding of several vehicles. The checkpoint was initiative due to numerous DUI-related accidents and recent tragedies.

July 8, 2017 (Alpine) – A $1,000 reward is offered for information leading to the arrest of a man who violently assaulted a 63-year-old woman. The victim was walking along Harbison Canyon Road near Hunter Pass in Alpine on June 20th between 7:15 and 8:50 p.m. when the suspect attacked her from behind, pushing her into a fence and possibly striking her in the face with his hands or an unknown object.

July 5, 2017 (San Diego) – Countless families have been reunited with missing loved ones, or learned their fate, thanks to the tireless efforts of Sheriff Search and Rescue Coordinator Don Parker. Sergeant Parker, who retired in 2015, made a career out of helping others – and now the community is pulling together to bring financial help to Sergeant Parker, who was diagnosed in May with brain cancer.

July 1, 2017 (Spring Valley ) – Two vehicles were struck in a drive-by shooting this evening near the intersection of Jamacha Road and Gillespie Drive in the La Presa area of Spring Valley, sending the driver of a white Ford Focis to the hospital, NBC 7 reports.

Witnesses reported hearing 10 to 11 shots around 5:17 p.m. A witness told Fox 5 that he saw the white car hit a corner and rushed to help. “I unlocked the door and he was riddled with bullets on his right side. The right side of his passenger door was riddled with bullets,” the witness told Fox 5, adding that he used the driver’s phone to speak with a 911 dispatcher and applied pressure to the driver’s wounds until emergency personnel arrived.

July 1, 2017 (La Mesa) – A suspected drunk driver crashed into a semi-truck on Interstate 8 near State Route 125 on Wednesday, following a pursuit by La Mesa police and California Highway Patrol early Wednesday morning.

June 30, 2017 (San Diego ) – The San Diego County Sheriff is asking all County residents to be on the looking for Pablo Duran, who goes by multiple aliases and is considered armed and dangerous.

He is wanted for suspicion of murdering his employer, contractor Robert Pierro,on June 7 in Vista. According to a press release issued today, he fled from law enforcement and his whereabouts are unknown. There is an active felony arrest for him.

June 29, 2017 (El Cajon) – A DUI/driver’s license checkpoint in El Cajon on June 24th resulted in zero arrests. Around 20 law enforcement personnel from El Cajon Police Department, including officers as well as five cadets and five senior volunteers, participated in the checkpoint in the 1400 block of East Washington Avenue from 8 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

June 26, 2017 (La Mesa) – Jessica McElfresh is an attorney who co-authored Measure U, the ballot measure approved by La Mesa voters to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to operate legally in the city. Now she’s facing felony charges of conspiring to use flammable, volatile and toxic chemicals to extract hash oil from marijuana and sell it out of state. She is also accused of misleading investigators, helping her client hide illegal operations, and destroying evidence.

June 25, 2017 (Alpine) – The Alpine Community Network (ACN) reports that on the morning of June 21st, an Alpine resident found a large “fireworks” placed under a tree beneath a child’s window, where it could have caused major damage, injury or a fire.

June 24, 2017 (San Diego) – Robert Branch, a security officer charged with criminal offenses after he filed a civil rights lawsuit against the San Diego Sheriff’s Department alleging excessive use of force has been acquitted of all charges. Branch’s evidence included a cell phone video he took as off-duty Sheriff’s detective Paul Ward choked him into unconsciousness in Del Cerro.

Branch, who is African-American, has said Ward swerved to block him from passing on an onramp, forcing him onto the shoulder, then pursued him for 10 miles before Branch pulled off I-8 in Del Cerro, where the confrontation occurred. Ward claimed Branch passed him on I-8 and nearly struck his vehicle.

June 22, 2017 (Lemon Grove) – The U.S. Attorney’s office has revealed that Mary Sessoms Baker, 30, the woman charged in a fentanyl drug trafficking case, is the daughter of former Lemon Grove Mayor Mary Sessoms, the San Diego Reader reports.

Baker is accused of acting as a courier to transport narcotics in three separate trips. Federal agents stopped her in a rented vehicle and found 15 kilograms of fentanyl, then found 30 more kilograms at her home. The Department of Justice has described the bust as one of the largest seizures of fentanyl ever nationwide, as ECM previously reported.

June 20, 2017 (Lemon Grove) – One of the nation’s largest seizures of fentanyl ever, over 44 kilograms, has been announced by the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Diego. Fentanyl is more than 50 times stronger than heroin, but has been used to boost potency of heroin or counterfeit opioid painkillers resembling oxycodone. This has led to an “epidemic” of deaths from fentanyl-laced street drugs, according to prosecutors.